Farewell April:

This month has been busy.. every week it seemed that I was either cleaning or cooking for some event..

The house won and then I fought back..

My 20’s got even farther away

I found my voice in arguments.

I have learned this month that life is fragile and friendships are a two way street..

I have laughed and cried…

I even steam cleaned my carpets.

I managed a visit from “company” and they left with all their limbs attached.

I have seen my children grow in some ways and regress in others..  they became more responsible and I am so proud of them.

I have made more resolutions to be a better parent and not to take the Word for granted..

I didn’t lose a pound even after cutting out all processed foods from our diet.

I have been speaking loudly and forgetting about the stick when it should have been the other way around.

My rules have been broken with Gabriel and candy. Those two ingredients don’t mix and the monster is fed by the sugar.

All the efforts that I made for someone to feel at home was tossed aside. I had opened my heart and home for them and with one meant to be funny comment from me has turned into a very hurtful situation.

I am only human.. and I know that God tests us and it is up to us how we deal with our tests.. we can either wallow in our misery over things done wrong to us or to learn what ever it is we were to learn. But I have a hard time with this one. I have no clue what to learn here.. all I do know is that I will never stop living from this person or others no matter how much they spit on my efforts.

I have been inspired I have been chastised  I have grown.

Farewell April  and may I fill May with love and more growth for my family.

I haven't been in the mood to blog lately.. I tried earlier today and it ended up sounding like I was going to shoot you if you even so looked at a fast food joint... so I gave up.. I saved it among all my other aggressive blogs that hopefully one day I will find the time and energy to edit them and make them more suitable for company..

 I think I know the source of my foul mood...

Tomorrow is my birthday.. and I really wished that this year is the year everyone forgot about it.. but for some reason they didn't... it doesn't help that the kids are counting down the days  and ask me every morning.. " What do you want for your birthday Mama?"

Your rooms cleaned...

Yeah right! I never get what I want...

What I really want.... lets see.. well to be happy for one.. I am working on that.. but I end up losing that battle by evening time..
To be more organized... to wake up every morning with a clean kitchen and the laundry pile to not be spilling out into the kitchen. to not have attitudes when it comes to sitting down and doing school to have dinner waiting on the stove when DH comes home.
To never raise my voice again.. unless it is to sing.
To never be made to feel guilty for something I can not do no matter how many times you ask or dirty looks thrown my way.
To never be in the middle of a gossip train... and that if I hear something about someone that I would never ever repeat it.
To never be the object of someones wrath..
To always smile and have the right words for ppl in need.
To never fail again as a parent..

I don't think the kids could even come close to finding that stuff at walmart.

That is a good thing.. it would be made in China and who wants self esteem from China?

It doesn't help that the battle of the messy house is not even.. Me/3  House/22 I have company coming this weekend.. the corners are filled to the brim there is a inch of dust on everything.. the cobwebs hanging from the living room ceiling are getting so big that the kids will be able to swing on them soon.. and the cabinets keep getting shoved with more stuff I don't have room for or want/need... and we won't even go into the yard and the horrid mess that is out there..
Shall we talk about the carpets? I am pretty sure that if I didn't have food for lunch the kids could get a well balanced one off the living room and dinning room carpets.. the really really sad part is that I have a carpet cleaner.. it is in the dinning room because I can't seem to muster up the energy to put it somewhere..

There is no hope..

And I am getting even OLDER tomorrow.

Lets gripe about that some more.. Older isn't the right word.. I don't mind being old.. I think with age you get wisdom.. ( well some of us do at least ) and I want that.. I want to be wise and have the knowledge to know what to do. I still think of myself as a 18 idiot so 33 is kinda hard to grasp.. I just got used to being 32 and the stupid change of the calendar messed that up for me. I don't care about wrinkles, grey hair or saggy skin.. I don't have wrinkles.. ( on my face) haven't seen a grey hair ( probably wont since both my parents didn't gray until their 50's) and saggy skin? well.. I would probably see allot more of that if I lost a few small adults off my rear end and front.. but for now it is all nice cushy fat.

I lost my point..

Oh well.. I can sum it up by saying that I am getting older tomorrow... still fat.. company is coming and my house is a mess..

Who wants to adopt some kids for a week while I have myself a pity party?

Or I could just buckle down and  drink lots and lots of coffee and clean like a mad woman from now until Friday.. and when company finally gets here sit on the couch and relax...
Look up and realize I forgot the cobwebs.

I want to try this on someone to see if it really works...

Who's game?

The Cookie Jar

I used to hate making cookies… they are very time consuming.. you pour, mix, cream and then have to roll out  e…..v….e…..r….y…..s….i….n…g…..l….e  one. Then I found it relaxing.. there is something about pinching off a bit of cookie dough in your hands and shaping them into cookies that gets you lost in your thoughts.. I really work some things out in my head when I bake.. I argue with the latest person I have a problem with.. I think about what I would do if I could do them the way I want… I vent, dream, cry, and relieve so much when I cook..

It’s so much cheaper than therapy.

Until the price of butter goes up..

I like being able to deliver the latest request.. When Gabe asks me for some cookies I pretty much jump to the chance… ( his wife is going to hate me.. “ I DON’T CARE WHAT YOUR MOTHER DID FOR YOU!!) he usually has the same demands.. chocolate chip..  James loves peanut butter.. Layla chocolate chip and Zoe chocolate cake..

I’m not very adventurous when it comes to trying out new recipes..  too many people have pallets of  donkeys and don’t care what they produce so I usually read and reread and  compare before I waste any of my butter on a cookie that could be dry, tasteless, or hard as a rock.

But cookies are simple.. lack of taste? Add more vanilla, salt or flavor of the cookie.. peanut butter, cranberries, or chocolate chips.. to dry? Look at the ratio of the flour verses the eggs and butter and then adjust.. usually less flour by ¼ of a cup... to crisp?   Bake it less and don’t ever ever leave them on the pan if they look done.. the great thing about cakes and cookies is that they still cook even when out of the oven… the obvious gooey ones leave them on the pan for a few mins and they will finish cooking..  There is a science to cooking and if you understand the ingredients and what they do ( Thank you Cooks Illustrated!) you can tweak any recipe to make it better.

Baking soda and baking powder are leavings  they help your cookies rise… to much baking powder will cause your cookies to rise and then fall…  when you see a recipe that calls for ¼ teaspoon of baking soda don’t skip that.. it helps your baked goods brown..

“Without eggs, homemade cookies are no more than stone breads with sugar. This natural ingredient contributes to: Building structure Lending desirable texture and taste Leavening extending shelf life” bla bla bla  this isn’t one ingredient you can skip over..

Salt helps to bring out the other flavors. Even if you are not making cookies, this rule holds true. Try making something fairly bland without any salt. Taste it. Now add some salt in. You will notice a difference. Lack of taste? Add more salt.. I usually glace a recipe and see the measurements for the salt.. my rule is one teaspoon of salt for three cups of flour…

Sometimes you’ll see a recipe call for shortening and butter.. shortening is to hold the shape of the cookie better since butter tends to spread easily… there is no taste in shortening.. and since this is about cookies not about deadly products out there we will just leave it as don’t use shortening… I’ve found a good way to prevent spreading of my cookies.. roll them in balls before baking.. somehow that shape helps.. and if your dough is too soft let it sit in your fridge for a hour or two.. ( or overnight like me because you got a hair brain idea to make cookies at nine at night and only got through two batches before you gave up)  this lets your butter harden back up so that it doesn’t melt as fast in your oven…

Sugar is one of the main components  if you reduce the amount of granulated sugar called for in your cookie recipe, you inadvertently increase the amount of water or liquid that is available for flour to absorp. As a result, your dough will be stiffer, and your sugar cookies tend to be crunchy and don't spread much. But that also doesn’t mean you blindly follow a recipe.. there is usually 2 cups of sugar to one cup of butter.. if you have a recipe that has 4 cups of sugar and one cup of butter one… your not going to be able to cream it together and two some idiot did a typo… ( I never do typos… I just didn’t read over my blog and find about ten that I need to correct..) it all comes down to using common cooking sense..

I am sure that next year I will be on a different cooking obsession but this spring it has been cookies..  The kids better enjoy it while they can.. it might just be with liverwurst soon…

 Here is my favorite cookies to make..

Chocolate chip.. This one is great.. I am sure I am being  hypocrite  here by having pudding mix in my dough… but you would be one too once you tried them. I love to make the full batch and do one box vanilla and one box French vanilla.. they are amazing. I made these once and froze the dough that I made up as balls and they turned out fine..

Magic Pudding Cookies

Oatmeal.. cranberry…. cookies… now those I could eat.. I love the bite that the cranberrys give you.. this recipe calls for raisins and if you’re a cranberry hater then go for it.. these are soft and chewy.

Oatmeal Cookies

This doesn’t make that much… it says something like 36 cookies and I barely get 24 out of the recipe.. these are more for a special occasion  or a cookie swap.

Chocolate covered cherry cookies 

James’s favorites… I am reminded of Papa when I make these.. how much he loved cookies but they had to be crunchy..

These aren’t… And I miss him.

Peanut butter Cookies 

Tropical Coconut Cake

Today we're making a Coconut cake filled with pineapple curd

I guess I have to clean my kitchen....

My recipe that I chicken scratched on paper.. I hate writing recipes down.. I really hate it.. I usually just list the ingredients and then forget the instructions by the time I get around to make it.

One of my favorite cakes to make.. but it takes a lot of time.. whip this beat that.. stop and scream at the kids… bake this… cook that.. take the starter of all fights and make them take a nap.. toast this… fight with the said napper and burn that. But at the end of the day after it is all constructed and in the fridge waiting to be devoured  I  am happy..

I usually feel the same way after company cleaning my house.. but never do it because… well.. it takes all day.

A long drawn out post… waaayyyy too many pictures.. but I figure I suffered making this cake so you all might as well too..  

Lets get our ingredients

Separate the egg yolks and whites

Whip the egg whites slide into a bowl and set aside..

Cream your butter and sugar..

Add egg yolks

Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in large bowl

Add 1/3 to butter/sugar/egg mix

Add 1/3 of your milk… mix

(continue with flour and milk until done)

After you have all that done add the egg whites and gently fold in.

Pour evenly into three prepared pans…

Bake.

Meanwhile  pineapple sugar and cornstarch into a pan

Egg yolks ( I think there was a incident in the living room causing me not to be able to capture the adding of the adding of this and dumping of that... but we can still look at the contrast of the cobalt blue and the sunshine yellow... )

Pineapple custard.. keep your fingers and spoons OUT OF IT!

Sorry.. force of habit.

Melt white chocolate and cream

Mix sour cream and butter ( by the way we're making the frosting)

Add chocolate..

Confectioners sugar... ohhh another picture I missed...

Once your cake rounds have cooled off set up your station.. it makes a difference if your counters are free of anything but what your using.. and be prepared to get coconut everywhere.. and to sweep afterwards. Have your cakes, icing, curd and a towel for wiping down anything..

Place first round down.. Add curd..

Place second round on… don’t be afraid to make it level.. you don’t want to smash down so hard that curd goes flying out but move around your cake rounds to make a flat surface..

Oh and repeat with the rest of the curd and last cake round..

Now we’re ready to frost this sucker!!

Now lets put the coconut on… this is where it gets really messy.. I am sure there is some professional way to do this but I just grab a hand full and smash it on the side.. I do that about twice around.. once the coconut is on the side I usually get eye level and make sure the sides of the cake is nice and straight.. well as straight as they can be.. and using my hands I smooth down the sides of the cake..

Give up halfway through and send a kid to the corner.

TADA!!

I have white chocolate chips.. not a block.. so no curls for me today.. instead I grated them in the food processor and then sprinkled on top.. doesn’t look as pretty as the curls but everyone is lucky I even bothered in the first place..

( It is the end of the day.. dinner isn’t done dinner for church tomorrow isn’t done and every three seconds the un-napper asks if the mashed potatoes are done..)

Here is the recipe.. I now am going to mash some potatoes maybe it will get rid of some aggression.

Print Recipe

Recipe

Tropical Coconut Cake

Cake:

1 ½ cups of butter

2 cups sugar

6 eggs separated

3 ¾ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon coconut extract

Pineapple curd:

¾ cup sugar

4 tablespoons cornstarch

20 oz can crushed pineapple

¼ cup butter

4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon pineapple extract

Frosting:

4oz white chocolate

1/8 cup cream

¼ cup butter

¼ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon coconut extract

2 cups confectioners sugar

Toasted coconut

Shaved white chocolate curls.

Directions:

For Cake:

Preheat oven to 350. grease and flour three cake pans well.

Separate eggs. beat egg whites till stiff peaks form set aside. Mix flour, salt and baking powder in med bowl set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar add egg yolks. Mix well.

Add flour and milk alternately 1/3 at a time each.. starting and ending with flour. Mix well then add beaten egg whites stirring lightly till mixed thoroughly

Add vanilla and coconut extracts.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 mins.

For Curd:

While your cake is baking open can of the crushed pineapple pour into large pot add sugar and cornstarch mix thoroughly over med heat stir until bubbly. In a bowl with egg yolks pour ½ cup of pineapple mixture mix and then add that mix back to your pot of bubbly mix.. cook 3 more minutes stirring constantly. Let cool completely.

For Frosting:

In small pot on low heat stir together white chocolate and cream until melted. Let cool.

In mixing bowl cream together sour cream and butter. Add cooled white chocolate, mix again add confectioners sugar and mix well. Add more sugar as needed.

To assemble:

Place one cake round on serving platter.. spread on half of pineapple curd top with another cake round and repeat with curd. Top with final cake round.  Lightly spread icing around sides and top of cake.. This is where it gets a little fun.. with my hands I grab some toasted coconut and start pressing it lightly to the sides of the cake.. about 1/3 will fall off ( make sure your on top of a clean counter so you can gather it back up to your pile) if your cake is uneven on the sides  ( mine usually are) with the coconut you can build up a flat side to your cake.. completely cover the sides leaving the top plain. This is where we will have our white chocolate curls.. .

Obnoxious opinions by the cook:

I hate dry cake… I won’t even bother eating it ( I know I sound like a snob) if it looks dry… to me it is wasted calories and I want to at least enjoy what I am shoving in my mouth as my rear end widens. When I bake my cakes I make sure I don’t let them cook too long and as soon as I grab them out of the oven I place them on a plate and immediately cover them with plastic wrap or if it is a Bundt cake I just put it right into my cake dome covering it with the cover and let it cool down. There will be SOME condensation but easy enough to wipe down the inside of your cake cover. I am sure there is some purest bakers out there whose skin would fall off if they did this but doing it this way I am sure to have a moist cake.

Don’t ever ever not grease and flour your pans… unless you plan on eating it out of the pan or like to broken up look..

DO NOT make a cake with self rising flour.. Self rising flour  already has baking powder and soda mixed.. and not every recipe that you make will have those two included.. not only that when you make bread or cookies with self rising flour you’ll end up with a dry biscuit tasting pastry.  Cookies don’t call for baking powder usually and the baking soda is in small quantities’ to aid in the browning of your cookie. I repeat don’t bother buy self rising flour.

The original recipe called for twice as much icing.. and so far I’ve only met about 1 ½ people that actually like icing. The rest of us is scraping that crap off .. but if you’re a icing lover make a double batch.. only put half on and just eat the rest out of the bowl.

Naan

 When we first moved down to cincy we ate out a lot..  Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Indian. I found it inspiring to try different cuisines that I was unable to experience before..  as our family grew and our goals shifted to long term going out to eat wasn’t in the budget.. so I started making my favorite dishes at restaurants at home… I’m still perfecting them but the one I am most happy about is Naan. At $3.00 a piece at restaurants’ you couldn’t very well get your fill, so I searched for the perfect recipe.. invested in a baking stone.. researched some more and came across this recipe…

It takes a little preparation and planning but so worth it!

This recipe makes about 16 to 18 naan. You can scale it down if there is only a few or make the whole batch and freeze them for later use.

In a medium bowl add your warm water, yeast and sugar.. stir to dissolve and then let set to let your yeast proof.

In a large glass or plastic bowl add your flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well

Drizzle oil over flour mixture

Add yogurt

With your hands lightly mix yogurt and oil into flour.. there should be small clumps like so..

Rush around your kitchen rooting for your garlic press... find it in the dishwasher.. wonder the last time  you used it.. remeber it was several days ago and figure out that your dishwashers were to lazy to clean it right so the dishwasher was washing the finish off for the past four days.. clean it.. and mince a whole globe of garlic for some real kick.

Add your yeast  mix again with hands. It will be sticky!

Cover and let raise 4 to 5 hours.

About a hour to hour and a half place your baking stone in middle rack of oven and preheat to 500.. you want your stone to be hot throughout. When you start baking turn your oven to broil

Now we’re ready to make Naan!

Flour your counter.. cut dough in half  and then divide dough into 8 pieces

Roll to ¼ inch thick

Place them on your stone like so..

Almost done!

Let your stone heat back up between batches.. otherwise you will have a nice brown top and a gooey bottom.

Brush with melted butter.

Print recipe

Recipe

• 6 cups Flour
• 3 teaspoon Salt
• 3 teaspoon Sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of Baking Soda
• 3 teaspoon Yeast
• 2 1/4 cups Warm Water
• 6 Tablespoons Oil
• ½ cup Plain Yogurt
• One stick Melted Butter

In a small bowl, mix the yeast and water. Let sit for 3 to 5 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, add flour, salt, sugar, baking soda together; mix well. Drizzle oil and yogurt over flour mixture; mix lightly. Add water and yeast; mix well. Dough will be fairly sticky. Cover with cloth. Let rise for four hours in a warm draft-free area.
Turn oven to broil (make sure your oven rake is in the middle). Set in your pizza stone and let it all preheat together. Preheat for at least a hour You want your stone good and hot.
Divide your dough into16 equal pieces. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick. (Any thinner and they will not poof up.) Bake on pizza stone for 6 to 8 minutes or until nicely browned. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Last Minute Bread Sticks

Tonight was leftovers night…. Maybe for a family of four with no teenagers in the house then we would have had plenty but I was trying to make the 9x13” pan of pasta go farther… so lets pull out some corn and whip up some bread sticks….
Yeah right.. whip up some bread sticks suuuuurrreee.. but these ARE “whipable!” in about 35 mins you can have bread sticks to go with your meal..  about the same time it would take to open up a jar of spaghetti sauce and boil some noodles and you have fresh hot homemade bread sticks.. ( your thighs are going to clap with joy!)

Gather your yeast, sugar, salt, warm water.

In mixing bowl add your water, yeast and sugar… mix well don’t confuse those bubbles as the yeast raising.. if you have fresh yeast it will take less than 3 mins for you to start seeing the yeast “proof”

OooOOoO doesn’t that look good!

I had a fight to break up so my yeast sat longer than I wanted but it proofed great!

Add your flour and mix till no longer sticky …

Divide into 16 little lumps of dough
 
Melt your butter

Pour into baking pan and then roll bread sticks

I sprinkled half with Kosher salt and spices and the other with rosemary and garlic…
Bake 10 mins

Beat off the grubby fingers as you try and take the final picture…  Print Recipe  Recipe

• 1-½ cup Warm Water
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Dry Active Yeast
• 3-½ cups Flour
• ½ cups Melted Butter
Mix together warm water, sugar, salt and yeast. Allow yeast to activate (about 10 minutes). Add flour and stir in with a fork until dough holds together. Or use the dough hook on your mixer. Turn out onto floured board. Knead lightly into a ball. Divide into 16 equal portions. On floured board, roll out into bread sticks. Melt butter and pour into baking dish. Roll each stick in the butter as you line them up   Preheat oven to 400 degrees. This gives the bread sticks about 10 minutes to begin to rise. Cook at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. May be made in the morning and kept in the refrigerator unbaked. Remove from the refrigerator about 30 – 45 minutes (depending on how warm your house is) before baking.